Book Reviews
The digital home of book reviews and author interviews—and your source of the most up-to-date information on all things Civil War literature
Published: 1/1/14
WITTENBERG: Protecting the Flank at Gettysburg (2013)
Protecting the Flank at Gettysburg: The Battles of Brinkerhoff’s Ridge and East Cavalry Field, July 2-3, 1863 by Eric J. Wittenberg. Savas Beatie, 2013. Paper, ISBN: 1611210941. $16.95. Clausewitz tells us...
Published: 12/25/13
FINSETH (ed.):The American Civil War (2013)
The American Civil War: A Literary and Historical Anthology, Second Edition, edited by Ian Frederick Finseth. Routledge, 2013. Paper, ISBN: 041553707X. $54.95. Anthologies of the American Civil War frequently lose...
Published: 12/25/13
HORTON & KLEINTOP (eds.): Race, Slavery, and the Civil War (2011)
Race, Slavery, and the Civil War: The Tough Stuff of American History and Memory edited by James Oliver Horton and Amanda Kleintop. Virginia Sesquicentennial of the Civil War Commission, 2011. Cloth,...
Published: 12/18/13
Divided & United: The Songs of the Civil War (2013)
Divided & United: The Songs of the Civil War produced by Randall Poster. ATO Records. Release: November 5, 2013. Twenty-three years since the first airing of Ken Burns’s PBS documentary, The Civil War,...
Published: 12/14/13
WHITE: Confederate General Leonidas Polk (2013)
Confederate General Leonidas Polk: Louisiana’s Fighting Bishop by Cheryl H. White. The History Press, 2013. Paper, ISBN: 1609497376. $19.99. In 1861, Leonidas Polk seemed poised to establish himself as one of...
Published: 12/11/13
MCQUEEN: 12 Years a Slave (2013)
12 Years a Slave directed by Steve McQueen. Length: 134 minutes. Premiere: October 18, 2013. When 12 Years a Slave begins, a group of slaves stare at you while a voice from the...
Published: 12/4/13
CLEMENS (ed.): The Maryland Campaign Vol. II (2012)
The Maryland Campaign of September 1862: Vol. II: Antietam by Ezra A. Carman and edited by Thomas G. Clemens. Savas Beatie, 2012. Cloth, ISBN: 161121114X. $37.50. Every serious student of the...
Published: 11/27/13
NATHANS: To Free a Family (2012)
To Free a Family: The Journey of Mary Walker by Sydney Nathans. Harvard University Press, 2012. Cloth, ISBN: 0674725948. $29.95. In the decades before the Civil War, hundreds of slaves ran...
Published: 11/20/13
PATCHAN: The Last Battle of Winchester (2013)
The Last Battle of Winchester: Phil Sheridan, Jubal Early, and the Shenandoah Valley Campaign, August 7 – September 19, 1864 by Scott Patchan. Savas Beatie, 2013. Cloth, ISBN: 1932714987. $34.95. It...
Published: 11/13/13
BARNICKEL: Milliken’s Bend (2013)
Milliken’s Bend: A Civil War Battle in History and Memory by Linda Barnickel. Louisiana State University Press, 2013. Cloth, ISBN: 0807149926. $39.95. The past few decades have witnessed an outpouring of...
Published: 11/6/13
HOOD: John Bell Hood (2013)
John Bell Hood: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of a Confederate General by Stephen Hood. Savas Beatie, 2013. Cloth, ISBN: 1611211409. $32.95. If biographers are often guilty of loving their subjects...
Published: 10/30/13
LINK: Atlanta, Cradle of the New South (2013)
Atlanta, Cradle of the New South: Race and Remembering in the Civil War’s Aftermath by William A. Link. University of North Carolina Press, 2013. Cloth, ISBN: 146960776X. $34.95. In recent decades,...
Published: 10/23/13
SERRANO: Last of the Blue and Gray (2013)
Last of the Blue and Gray: Old Men, Stolen Glory, and the Mystery that Outlived the Civil War by Richard A. Serrano. Smithsonian Books, 2013. Paper, ISBN: 1588343952. $27.95. As America...
Published: 10/15/13
REVIEW ESSAY: Mosby’s Raids (2013) and Morgan’s Great Raid (2013)
Morgan’s Great Raid: The Remarkable Expedition from Kentucky to Ohio by David L. Mowery. The History Press, 2013. Paper, ISBN: 1690494369. $19.99. Mosby’s Raids in Civil War Northern Virginia by William S....
Published: 10/9/13
WESLEY: The Politics of Faith (2013)
The Politics of Faith During the Civil War by Timothy L. Wesley. Louisiana State University Press, 2013. Cloth, ISBN: 0807150002. $45.00. The past fifteen years or so have witnessed renewed scholarly...
Published: 10/2/13
KEEHN: Knights of the Golden Circle (2013)
Knights of the Golden Circle: Secret Empire, Southern Secession, Civil War by David C. Keehn. Louisiana State University Press, 2013.Cloth, ISBN: 0807150047. $39.95. Historians have long delved into the dynamics of...
Published: 9/25/13
BEARSS: The Petersburg Campaign (2012)
The Petersburg Campaign: The Eastern Front Battles, June – August, 1864, Volume 1 by Edwin C. Bearss with Bryce Suderow. Savas Beatie, 2012. Cloth, ISBN: 1611210909. $34.95. The siege of Petersburg...
Published: 9/18/13
DERDEN: The World’s Largest Prison (2012)
The World’s Largest Prison: The Story of Camp Lawton by John K. Derden. Mercer University Press, 2012. Cloth, ISBN: 0881464155. $35.00. A military prison need not have operated for long to...